Being healthy at home and in one's personal life is becoming one area of focus for many companies across the United States. However, we often forget about keeping ourselves well throughout the working day. With an estimated $576 billion lost in the U.S. economy due to illness, disability, and workers' compensation (Forbes, 9/12/12), the need for staying healthy at work is at an all-time high. We have some tips for staying health-conscious in the workplace.

Take breaks. Stress causes an incredible amount of illness and can also distract workers, making workplace injuries much more likely. Taking a breather between projects will also boost productivity. Take a quick walk outside or lay your head down for a moment in order to reduce workplace stress.

Eat healthier and drink water. It is very easy to hit your favorite burger joint at lunchtime or even to skip lunch due to a heavy workload. However, these habits cause our bodies to function poorly, effectively lowering productivity. That extra time you spent at your desk without eating a proper meal can slow you down for the rest of the afternoon. Drinking lots of coffee and sugary drinks at work can also make your work suffer when you crash. When your body is working well, your work will improve greatly.

Get enough rest at night. A huge loss in productivity is caused by presenteeism, the concept that people are at work but are not working to their full potential due to exhaustion, illness, or other problems. Getting enough sleep at night can improve health, help you lose weight, and improve focus dramatically. You will feel less stressed and will be able to accomplish more on a full night's rest.

Keep your work area clean. Germs are everywhere and are very easily transferred. Keep hand sanitizer at your work station as well as some antibacterial wipes that you can use to clean up at least once a month. Your mouse, keyboard, and phone can harbor contaminants, and wiping them clean from time to time will help to keep preventable sicknesses away.

Stay home when you are not well. If you are sick, coming in to the office can be a catastrophe, as you can infect the rest of your colleagues. It is tempting to come in to work and suffer through the day so as not to fall behind or use up valuable sick days, but this is inconsiderate and will end up reducing your team's productivity in the long run, as more people could miss days from catching your illness. Take the time to get better at home.

Managers should be aware of the various pitfalls at work that can lead to an unhealthy staff. Encourage your team to have healthy habits and give them some slack to be able to take the time they need to be well. This will cause productivity to soar and will lead to a happier staff that will work well together and have less unnecessary stress.

Readers: What measures do you take to remain healthy during your work day?

This entry was posted on April 18, 2013 at 8:05 AM and has received 299 views. There are currently 0 comments. Print this entry.

In last week's TradePost, we discussed the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) and how it affects American businesses of all sizes (TradePost, 4/4/13).

This week, we'll focus more on those businesses that have more than 50 full-time-equivalent employees on the payroll and the way they can mitigate the financial and administrative burden posed by the legislation once the "pay or play" election requirements take effect on January 1, 2014. Under Obamacare, those companies will either have to offer expensive health care coverage to their employees or pay a $2,000 - $3,000 fine (after tax) per employee.

Experts agree that the best strategic solution can be summed up in two words... temporary staffing.

On a recent episode of his CNBC show Mad Money, financial analyst Jim Cramer noted that the demand for temps is mushrooming, "fueled in part by the pending implementation of Obamacare." He says:

"Businesses of all sizes are searching for ways to cope with this law, and the easiest way to avoid paying these expenses is to hire more temps."

It's a matter of math. To avoid the Obamacare penalties, or the requirement to provide health insurance to all its employees, companies can shed its employees and hire temporary workers through a staffing firm -- enough to lower their direct payroll to under 50 full-time employees.

Similarly, large employers can hire temps instead of full-time employees to perform work; the costs of paying a staffing firm's bill rate are usually significantly below the high costs of providing health insurance for employees, especially since health insurance costs are projected to increase by 8% next year, according to Milliman Medical Index.

According to Cramer, "Companies need to start making their adjustments now," due to the 12-month look back (measuring) period that starts on January 1, 2014. Not only will costs start to increase on that date, but heavy expectations for administrative reporting and compliance will take effect as well. The American Action Form estimates that the new law will create 111 million hours of paperwork burden in first three years (The Hill, 3/25/13).

The Select Family of Staffing Companies has studied the potential effects of the Affordable Care Act carefully. With 350,000 employees W-2d last year, Select has a strong vested interest in understanding how this legislation will impact its clients. Your Select representative will gladly discuss the practical and strategic steps your business should be taking now to position yourself for full compliance and minimization of financial exposure. To have someone contact you about what your company can do, please email us at tradepost@selectfamily.com.

Readers – will you add temps to your staff or offset your current staff to a temporary agency to mitigate the financial burden of the Affordable Care Act?

This entry was posted on April 11, 2013 at 7:46 AM and has received 836 views. There are currently 0 comments. Print this entry.

Health care costs are on the rise, and it appears that smokers and overweight people will pay the biggest price. With rates now 31% higher than five years ago, with an anticipated 5-8% increase in 2012, employers are looking at ways to cut the costs – and who better to put it back on than the unhealthy?

Wellness Programs

As a first response to rising prices, many employers started offering wellness programs to get their employees healthier and drive back down the prices. These programs included free gym memberships, bonuses for participating in the program and maintaining a healthy lifestyle, and other incentives. Unfortunately, many employees did not take the bait – and too few took advantage of the programs. As a result, some employers decided to stick it back to their employees and mandate the unhealthy to pay higher premiums and deductibles.

Smokers and the Obese

Employers are looking hard and fast at ways to cut costs, and smokers are among their new targets. Despite the decrease in smoking rates in the past years, 46.6 million (20.6%) Americans still call themselves smokers. (Center for Disease Control and Prevention, 2011) Meanwhile, 33.8% of all Americans qualify as obese.

With tobacco users consuming 25% more health care services than non-tobacco users (Reuters, 10/31/11), it seems like an obvious place to start cutting costs. And a few major corporate citizens are leading the charge.

Scott's Miracle-Grow adopted a "tobacco free" policy in 2006, preventing them from hiring tobacco users in certain states. Starting in 2012, retail giant Walmart will raise the insurance premiums for employees who smoke - all while providing their workers a smoking cessation program.

Veridian Credit Union in Waterloo, Iowa have decided to target overweight employees as well as smokers, recently announcing that they will, in 2013, begin passing on higher insurance premiums to their employees who smoke and are obese. It is time for workers to get their cholesterol levels down and take control of their obesity – or else they will be paying for their unhealthy habits through higher premiums.

So Why Care?

A large majority of the obese are lower income – people who do not have access to or cannot afford gyms, fitness classes, or fresh food. Added costs of higher premiums and deductibles just makes leading a healthier lifestyle that much more inaccessible to them.

And what about those who are, due to health reasons, unable to lower their cholesterol and maintain a healthy weight? Policies raising health rates for the obese will have to take into account and provide an exception for these people.

Hiking premiums for the unhealthy causes employees to become more accountable for their actions outside of work, and some argue this reduces their personal freedoms (Reuters, 10/31/11). However, should employers have to absorb the added health care costs for their employees that make unhealthy choices? Today's economy makes it now so they do not have to. With high unemployment rates and an abundance of applicants for every position, employers are able to get away with being less generous.

Readers: Business owners, will you be raising health care premiums for workers that are unhealthy?

This entry was posted on November 3, 2011 at 4:15 AM and has received 2428 views. There are currently 1 comments. Print this entry.

Although facelifts are not typically covered by standard medical plans, President Barack Obama's relatively new health care legislation is forcing employers to make over many aspects of the way they provide benefits to employees.

Employers have already had to make some immediate adjustments to health plans--including covering adult children up to the age of 26--and have started to look at what other kinds of changes will have to be made in the near future, such as complying with modified claim-reporting guidelines. And since the U.S. Supreme Court recently rejected a plea from Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli to fast-track its review of the constitutionality of the Obama administration's new plan, do not expect to be going back to the way things were any time soon. (Chicago Sun Times - 04/25/11)

As is traditionally the case with federally mandated laws, the high court will allow the sweeping legislation to simmer in federal appeals courts to get a sense of the findings there before welcoming the case as early as summer 2012. While the focus of the suit is targeted on the mandate for citizens to acquire health insurance or else be penalized by 2014, employers in the meantime have other concerns with which to cope while the law's constitutionality is debated in the legal system. A big focus will be on reviewing currently contracted plans to determine whether they will comply or be flexible enough to be made compatible in addition to hunting down new plans that will be cost effective yet still attractive to retain and attract quality employees. (Chicago Sun Times - 04/25/11)

The Benefits of Benefits
Even though a recent study shows that most employees have no idea how valuable their benefits package actually is, the quality of their medical, dental, and retirement coverage is far and away the most important thing a potentially new employee considers after salary. And no, that's not just older employees who tend to use the health care system more--it's younger employees as well. (SHRM – 04/20/11)

While in 2010, up to about 4 million small businesses were to become eligible for a tax credit to ensure their ability to insure employees, all signs point to the likelihood that the new legislation will lead to higher costs per plan for most companies. Many employers plan to shift most of those extra costs to employees, so finding the most cost-effective, comprehensive plans is critical to keep current employees happy and to compete for the best candidates to fill new positions. Some companies reportedly will also eliminate providing health care to retirees in order to save money, so maintaining this option could potentially offer a worthwhile competitive advantage.

In a poll taken by CNN, nearly 7 out of 10 companies said that they plan to offset their extra costs by increasing employee contributions for each dependent covered on the plan. With the implementation of the new law extending the age dependents are eligible to remain on their parents' insurance to 26, employees have already started adding dependents to their plans, which in turn could end up costing those employees even more. (CNNMoney.com – 03/10/11)

So when you decide to take the scalpel to your benefits packages, remember that it's not just about the bottom line. While the Supreme Court waits to "operate," employees are watching closely to see what comes of the new legislation and how employers respond. The choices employers make in the wake of the new legislation can affect the ability to retain and attract the best workers in your industry.

As an employer, how do you feel about the Affordable Care Act? Is there another way to mitigate the potential extra costs that come along with some parts of the plan?

For more information on the legislation itself, the Obama administration has set up a special website at www.healthcare.gov, which includes a timeline to see what parts of the law have been implemented and what is yet to come.

This entry was posted on May 5, 2011 at 4:02 AM and has received 893 views. There are currently 0 comments. Print this entry.

Forty years ago today, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) was established, with the bipartisan backing of Congress and President Richard Nixon. At that time, approximately 14,000 Americans were dying on the job each year - a figure that was thankfully cut by more than two-thirds in 2009. (Healthwatch, 04/21/11)

When speaking to the Center for American Progress on April 21, OSHA Head David Michaels announced that the agency will soon propose the creation of a new prevention process to help employers proactively identify workplace hazards. (Healthwatch, 04/21/11)

Still, terrible accidents continue to happen daily, and there are daily news reports about companies receiving fines for OSHA violations that total into the hundreds of thousands of dollars. In private industry, there were well over 3 million cases of nonfatal injuries and illnesses in 2009 that involved nearly 1 million days away from work. (Bureau of Labor & Statistics)

These numbers — fatal and nonfatal — are staggering, yet many companies believe that they are "safe" from problems happening at their facilities because their equipment has safety mechanisms, floors are clean, etc.

But did you know that the majority of workplace injuries are behavior-based?  Even the safest environments can pose hazards to an inattentive workforce.  The safety culture at your facility has a direct effect on your safety record.  Here are a few great ways to enhance your culture and get your employees focused on safety.

• Safety Awareness Postings. Let your employees know that safety is your number 1 priority by putting-up safety related posters and banners throughout your entire facility. The goal is to “Breathe Safety” from anywhere on site.
  
• Safety Incentives – Keep your employees actively engaged by incentivizing them to work safely.  Incentives work best when there are short-term, achievable goals with a nice reward at the finish line. If your facility can already go a month or two without any injuries, set the goal at 90 days; set it at 2 weeks if you are having multiple injuries every month. You can break it up by department, shift, or even by production line in order to make the goal more achievable if necessary. Safety raffles work well especially when there aremultiple modest prizes up for grabs coupled with 1 or 2 big-ticket items.  Make sure you are constantly advertising the incentive programs. Increased marketing = increased participation.
  
• On-The-Spot Safety – One of the best ways to keep your employees focused on safe behavior is to address any unsafe acts and exemplary behavior right there “on the spot.”  Disciplinary actions and/or warnings should be given for not following safety directions and “at-a-boy” incentives can be given to those leading by good example.

What kind of safety practices do you instill at your worksites? Are they as effective as they could be?

We want to know!

Additional Links: BLS Incidence Rate Calculator and Comparison Tool

This entry was posted on April 28, 2011 at 12:56 AM and has received 1427 views. There are currently 0 comments. Print this entry.

If Democrats and Republicans cannot come to an agreement over a spending package to fund the Federal Government by midnight Friday, April 8, the U.S. government could experience a shutdown. And since many negotiation attempts between the two parties and President Barack Obama have gone awry this week, the shutdown is looking more and more likely - especially after another late-night meeting Wednesday night failed to produce a compromise.

The government can't go fully dark though, can it?

Well, no. Essential services will remain intact. The last time the Federal government went dark was for 3 weeks in late 1995/early 1996 during the Clinton administration. Based on that precedent and preparations announced by the U.S. Office of Personnel Management in anticipation of an April 9 shutdown, military operations, mail delivery, air traffic control, border security, and the Federal Reserve will operate as normal.

Government functions that would likely be affected during the shutdown include the following:

• New Social Security applications would be on hold.
• Applications for visas and passports would go unprocessed.
• National parks and Smithsonian Institution museums would not open.
• IRS tax refund checks would be delayed. Paper tax filings would not be processed, though e-filings would.
• The Environmental Protection Agency would stop reviewing environmental impact statements.
• E-Verify (to determine employment eligibility of employees) would be suspended.
• Federal courts would function normally for about 10 days and then operate on skeleton crews of "essential employees".
• USDA meat inspections, and thus packers, would be off the job. (Wall Street Journal, 04/06/11)

Also, non-security officials (estimated at more than 800,000 employees) would be on a forced work furlough for the duration of the shutdown and would only be back-paid if Congress votes in favor of it when the shutdown ends.

What is the debate?

Both Democrats and Republicans agree that the government should dramatically cut spending of ineffective and redundant programs in an effort to relieve the deficit, which reached a record $222.5 billion in February.

However, the two parties are arguing over where and how steep the spending cuts should be. After months of wrangling back and forth, the target number now appears to be somewhere in the range of $33 billion, yet ideological differences remain. Democrats want more cuts to the Pentagon; Republicans want to add riders to the spending bill to defund Obama's health care law and Planned Parenthood Federation of America, as well as block climate change regulations.

Speaker of the House John Boehner has said the House of Representatives will vote on Thursday for a one-week short-term extension to find $12 billion more to cut. If the weeklong extension gets passed, it will be the seventh extension this fiscal year – the first extension occurring on October 1, 2010, a full eight months after Obama first proposed his spending plan.

Obama has been a vocal opponent of another extension. In addition to the obvious reason, he is concerned that another extension will impede the progress of the nation's recovery from recession. "Companies don't like uncertainty, and if they start seeing that suddenly we may have a shutdown of our government, that could halt momentum, right when we need to build it up," he said at a town-hall style event in Pennsylvania. (Reuters, 04/06/11)

What about my business?

Among the some 200 government programs that are designated for budgetary cuts – all of which will affect American citizens and businesses in small and large ways – are proposed reductions in the Small Business Administration (SBA).

While Obama proposed cutting approximately $28 million from the SBA budget, some Republications have suggested a far greater number – targeting grants to states for export promotion and staffers in the Office of International Trade, as well as many entrepreneurial development programs, microloan technical assistance, and the closure of all 10 regional offices and much of the SBA headquarters staff. (New York Times, 03/18/11)

So what's in store?

What's in store? A lot more debate.

Even if a spending bill for Fiscal Year 2011 can be passed soon, budget planning for 2012 (ironically) starts now. And with election season starting to heat up, you can be sure that the budget debate will become a major focus of the candidates and the pundits. The more heated the debate, the less likely a compromise will come easily.

At the same time, economists are stressing that a longer-term solution to prevent future deficit bloat must be reached. According to an April 4 paper by the International Monetary Fund, "To restrain the U.S.'s future budget crisis, the federal government must raise taxes by at least 35% and cut entitlements such as health care and Social Security by 35%." (Wall Street Journal, 04/04/11)

You can bet that the issue of raising taxes will be a subject of great debate in the coming months as well. Stay tuned.

This entry was posted on April 7, 2011 at 8:18 AM and has received 1324 views. There are currently 0 comments. Print this entry.

This is our first official "trade post," and we're excited to start offering a one-stop shop for the latest news - with an eye toward what it means for your company.

You'd have to be living under a rock to be unaware that gas prices are skyrocketing, Japan is in crisis, the federal budget still isn't passed, and the health care bill passed last year is causing continued controversy.

But what does all of this mean for your trade, your company, and your profession?

Well, with our regular "trade posts," we'll boil it down for you. We'll weed through the headlines and tell you just what you need to know to make sure you stay informed, productive, and successful.

Our plan is to post one update a week, starting tomorrow. Don't miss a post - subscribe to our email or RSS feed through the options at the right.

Please write comments on our posts and let us know of topics you want us to cover in the future. This is your blog. We want to hear from you.

We're excited to see where we can go together!

-- The Select Family of Staffing Companies

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This entry was posted on March 28, 2011 at 9:18 AM and has received 731 views. There are currently 0 comments. Print this entry.